Google TV Marketplace Turns YouTube Into TV

This week on the Reel Web we cover a story about a patent that Google recently updated about a marketplace for Google TV. The Google TV Marketplace will feature channel apps, possibly from YouTube, and may even be bundled together as a network for a premium fee. We share some of the implications of this for video creators like us.

Also, Roku has a new little device out that plugs into your TV and instantly turns a dumb TV into a smart TV, YouTube talks about views and how not to get them, we talk with Jim Louderback of Revision3 about the viewer experience on tablets, and we also give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour at the Michinima offices.

This week on the Reel Web, we take a look at how the future of Google TV combined with YouTube might change the entire future of how we consume online video. Plus, tablets are totally changing the game for how we view online video as well and we give you an exclusive behind the scenes look at one of the top YouTube channels here. So that’s all coming up.

Hey everyone, my name is Tim Schmoyer and welcome to another week of the Reel Web where every week we just look at some of the highlights in the online video world. This week, we want to start with some of the stuff that’s happening with Google TV. They recently updated a patent that shows some very interesting things about their plans for the future of Google TV. Specifically, that they will now be offering channels individually that people can subscribe to, sounds a lot like the YouTube channels and they’ll be bundling a lot of those together, sounds kind of like a network and optionally, maybe some of those will be premium where you can pay to subscribe and it’ll be like, $1.99 a month to subscribe to a network of channels.

With all the channels that are available on YouTube, you can see how that could quickly become a very disorganized mess on Google TV. So what they’re planning to do is implementing a rating system where people like us can rate our favorite channels that we like and the ones with the most ratings rise to the top so kind of like a crowd sourced best of type of channel stuff that you can kind of find which one’s good and quality, at least that everyone else thinks is good and quality.

But what I’m excited about is that this gives people like us the potential to have our very own TV show that we shoot, produce and write and script and put out there for people. We still have to do a lot of the hard work with getting viewers and earning subscribers and visibility and all that. But if you have some really good content and you even have some premium stuff that you want to charge for, maybe that will be a not too distant option for us and make online video a viable option as careers for those of us who just want to cut out the middleman and do our own thing without having to go through TV networks and all that kind of stuff. Just total awesome freedom and creativity. I love it.

A lot of us are probably familiar with the company Roku, they were one of the very first companies to take digital media and make it stream-able to our television sets and our living rooms. Their device was to first be able to stream Netflix videos to the television set as well so they’re definitely a pioneer in streaming online video and they are not stopping at that now.

They recently announced a new little device that somewhat resembles a little USB drive stick but now it’s called the Roku stick and it plugs right into the HDMI port of your TV. Their entire operating system is loaded right onto that little device and now if you have a dumb TV, it turns into a smart internet-enabled TV that streams content directly to your living room through devices in your house or different services that you subscribe to. It definitely seems like a cool little gadget, if you’d like to see more about this little thing and all the other stories we’re talking about, there’s links in the description below this video on YouTube or here at ReelSEO.com where you can go look at more stuff and details and information about all of this stuff.

Sometimes a lot of us are wondering what constitutes for a view on YouTube and what doesn’t. If someone just starts streaming immediately, does that count as a view? Can I put a little popup of my video behind the scenes on my website that just kind of plays automatically? So if someone visits, it automatically gives it a view, is that legit, a lot of different tactics and tricks that people are coming up with to try to boost their view count on their videos. And it makes sense because views are just an important statistic that a lot of people use for lots of different metrics.

So last week on the YouTube creator blog, they published a nice post that’s kind of summarizing what is a view, what is a really bad tactic to use, what will get your account banned, there’s a lot of different tactics trying to boost like, views, that people are just trying to sell you all this scammy stuff. So if you’re curious to learn more about what a view actually is on YouTube, and what’s okay about how to get views and what is not okay about how to get views on YouTube, that link is in the description below as well.

And a little secret for you guys, sometimes we upload videos to this YouTube channel at ReelSEO that don’t show up in your subscription box. It’s because we make them unlisted and then instead, we go and post them at ReelSEO.com so if you guys aren’t subscribed over there, you definitely want to go check that out because we uploaded a couple really cool videos this week that you guys will want to see.

The first one of those videos is really cool, it’s a behind the scenes look at Machinima, if you’re familiar with them on YouTube, they are one of the top players in the YouTube industry with millions of subscribers, billions of views, constantly uploading videos that surround like, video game stuff. Our president and founder here at Reel SEO went and visited their headquarters and got a really exclusive, behind the scenes look and tour of that whole facility. And guys, it is amazing, just kind of the stuff that they’ve got going on there. They’re constantly cranking out videos and uploading to YouTube. You definitely want to check that out, the link is below or you can click that video right there to go check it out.

Another video that was recently uploaded is an interview that Mark Robertson did with the CEO of Revision3, Jim Louderback, just talking about tablets and how they are really changing how we consume video on the web. (Video playback) “The tablet is going to become a video consumption device that will allow you to deep dive and do short attention — it may become a deep dive device, it may become a short attention, it may be both.”

He talks a little bit about how engagement differs when people are consuming online video on their desktop versus their mobile device versus a tablet like an iPad or something. And it’s really interesting how different people view media through those different devices. But the tablet’s kind of an unknown factor, we’re not really sure how it’s going to influence how people really consume video and stuff. So if you’re interested in learning more about that, you can click right there to open it up in a new window or the link is in the description below.

And speaking of clicking on stuff, one of you guys asked us on Facebook, hey, how do you make those videos clickable and pop up and the subscribe button and that outro thing that you do at the end of your videos? How do you make all that stuff work? Well that’s going to be our creator’s tip video on Wednesday and I’m going to give you guys a behind the scenes look at these videos right here and how I make all that. To get that video and all the other stuff we’re generating for you guys on a regular basis to help you out on your online video initiatives, you’ve got to click that subscribe button or the one above this video here on YouTube so you can keep up with all the stuff we’re giving you.

Comment below and let us know what do you think mobile tablets are going to do? How are they going to influence how people videos? Are people going to be more immersed through them or are they going to kind of just draw back? Is it going to be an engaging experience or is it going to be a quick like, hey we want to go from one video from the next, type of experience? So comment below, let us know.

I hope this was all helpful and informative for you guys and I will see you all again next week for another look at the Reel Web. But first, I will see you on Wednesday for a creator’s tip video and I will see you all then. Bye.

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